VQ Create

VQ Create is an online composition initiative started by the Villiers Quartet during the initial
lockdown period in Spring 2020.

Here are four quartets from our first #VQCreate sessions, recorded in October 2020.

Dominic Chivers – Nottingham High School: A Whimsical Afternoon

Keelan Colechin – Chilwell School: It’s a long way down

Samantha Coleman – Becket School: Storm Kelpies

David Eatch – Nottingham High School: Weltschmerz

With funding from the Arts Council, we put out a call to East.

Midlands students aged 14-18 to write music for a professional string quartet, which we would then record. These students worked with us online over a period of 5 months, and they received guidance on string quartet composition and feedback on their works-in-progress from Elizabeth Kelly, Associate Professor in Music Composition at the University of Nottingham.

At the end of the project, we had 14 new quartets from students in the region who had created their work during the lockdown. For many of them, this was their first-ever composition.